This Female CEO's Work-Life Balance Solution: Kids in the Office

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A working mother knows the choice all too well: rush back to the office when she's barely finished e-mailing out birth announcements, or frustrated by the meager amount of time off, abandon her job altogether. Thanks to maternity leave policies that seem downright draconian, American working mothers know that dilemma better any other subset—but thankfully for them, Sabrina Parsons, the CEO of Palo Alto Software, might be able to offer some hope.

In addition to ample maternity leave, Parsons offers a "bring your kid to work" policy to give her employees flexibility when dealing with the demands of their lives. Palo Alto Software is relatively small (40-some employees), so, perhaps even more importantly, Parsons pushes to implement the concept beyond her own office walls by broadcasting its benefits via Forbes, The Huffington Post, and Business Insider.

It is not a substitute for day care; we don't have someone who is in charge of children the whole time. Really, it's about giving you flexibility for when you need flexibility, but you also feel like you want to be in the office, not working from home, or taking a day off entirely. Then you can bring your kid in for the day, and we'll have a little room for you to use so you're not bothering anyone, and iPads for the kids to play with. But we do say to try not to be in the office longer than six hours, if so! Kids' patience levels are only so long, even with those iPads.

What has the reaction been like in your office?

Everyone loves it, not just moms! We have three single dads, and the single dads really love it. It was particularly helpful with the furlough days the public schools in Oregon kept having this year—we had six of them, and parents brought their kids in a lot. It really, really helps with unexpected issues like that.

Do you think it's easier for your company to institute this policy than it would be for other companies?

Well, I think it helps that we're small, and that we're small enough that we've been able to work the way we have, not setting super-firm guidelines for the policy, but just trusting that people won't abuse it. And we're located in Oregon, so we definitely have more office space for the same amount of rent than we would in a major, major metropolis. But we do still have an open plan office. If kids are crying and being loud, then we ask that they're not hanging out in the open plan part of the office.

Some people think that because we let parents bring kids into work, we don't let them take maternity leave or paternity leave, and that we force this on them. It's not one or the other!

Do you think the policy is gaining in momentum, or no?

It's tough to say. I was lucky enough to go the White House Summit on Working Families recently, where Michelle Obama had the last 45 minutes to close, and she told the story about going to interview at the University of Chicago Hospitals. Sasha was four months old, and Michelle didn't have a babysitter for her, so she brought her along with her to the job interview, and she got the job [as their vice president for community and external affairs]. I wish more women would talk about things like that.